As the drummer keeps time for the band, so Luna marks her months as she passes around the earth. Here, her crescent face is about to bid goodnight. She illuminates the trees on the mountain on her way over the horizon.
Venus (named after the Roman goddess of love) set before the moon, but I managed to capture her beforehand. Notice her red aura with a lacy blanket around her.
Jupiter – (the pic on the right was taken with higher ISO (sensitivity)) When I first snapped this and enlarged it I thought i moved the camera. Looking closer I realized I had captured four of the moons (Jupiter has in the range of 66 moons). I had no idea in my wildest imagination I’d pick up something like that…ever!
Mars (ISO 1600 1/8 sec…a 1/2 sec exposure revealed the planet with a red aura as opposed to blue) . He’s just tagging along behind all the other planets that passed over earlier.
Orion’s Belt – I always watched this constellation as a child. Until just a few years ago, I referred to it as “the backwards 7″…It was always my confirmation that I was facing east in the evening. Of course now I know the three brightest comprise Orion’s belt, from Orion. I also learned a few very basics of the three…
- Alnitak is 100,000 times more luminous than the sun.
- Alnilam is 375,000 times more luminous than the Sun.
- Mintaka is 90,000 times more luminous than the Sun.
I also know now, that Orion’s belt is what clues me in to find Pleiades. Orion is said to “hunt” the seven sisters of the Pleiades.
Pleiades – I’ve only found six of the stars in Pleiades visible with the naked eye. It seems maybe another was barely picked up in this picture.
Heavenly Peace – To consider how much brighter these stars are than the sun, yet how small they seem to the naked eye puts a little clearer perspective the vastness of this Universe.
To grasp that each of us is but a speck of dust when compared to the size of each of these stars and planets is phenomenal. They each have their own characteristics, yet they all work together to paint the most fantastic, continually transforming piece of art that could have been gifted to us.
When we accept that beautiful canvas as a gift from the Creators in whose image we are created (or did we create theirs?!), we discover what magnificent creators they are. One day perhaps we can grasp that, indeed, we can create just as magnificently as they. We can drop the destructive warring and be at peace and harmony with one another in the same way these heavenly bodies present themselves to us … Peace without end.
